Ouch.

From The Keystone Research Center:

This morning the federal government reported that the national economy shed more than nearly 600,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent. Although official Pennsylvania job numbers for January won’t be released until later this month, the new national numbers imply a likely loss of nearly 30,000 Pennsylvania jobs following a dip of 59,100 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2008.

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As the job loss rate has maintained its record breaking pace, there is a heightened urgency for Congress and the President to quickly pass an economic recovery package that includes both substantial aid to state and local governments and infrastructure spending. That package may be in trouble in the U.S. Senate, where some proposals would slash aid to Pennsylvania and other states struggling to balance their budgets in this economic downturn. A scaling back of the federal plan could blow a nearly $500 million hole in Pennsylvania’s proposed 2009-10 budget, before legislative hearings on the plan even begin. If the state were to make deep cuts to education, health care, services for autistic kids and countless other areas, Pennsylvania could see a wave of further job losses and heightened pain for families.

Absent a substantial federal recovery plan, the commonwealth will edge closer to a double-digit unemployment rate, something not seen in Pennsylvania since the early 1980s. This December, there were already two counties (Cameron and Fulton) with double digit unemployment rates.